


The Trouble with Texting

by Supernuetral_Detective



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Modern Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, ereri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-21 21:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7404859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supernuetral_Detective/pseuds/Supernuetral_Detective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A vulnerable Eren falls for a bathroom stall phone-number in need of support, not knowing that the person on the other side is far closer than he had anticipated. </p><p>**The idea pitched by husbando-levi on tumblr who has given me permission to make their wonderful idea possible ^_^**</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Profanity throughout the whole piece

** **

Levi grumbled angrily at himself when he received another anonymous text with a pleading plot. 

“Hanji what the fuck!” He growled at her from across the picnic table. She only smirked and took a quiet sip of her tea, “I told you,  _ I  _ didn’t write your phone number on a men’s room stall…” she said raising an eyebrow in pretentious victory. 

Levi rolled his eyes, “Hanji…” He said low and in warning, “How did you even get  _ into  _ the men’s room?!” 

“I think I pass as a good looking guy if you don’t look at my face.” She winked and Levi threw his phone down onto the table just as it buzzed with another anonymous text. 

“For fuck’s sake!” Levi swiped to delete the annoying notification and abandoned his phone. 

Hanji quietly observed him through her thick glasses, “You’re always so angry with everything, try to learn from the texts. Maybe, they could teach you to be more… compassionate or sympathetic?” 

Levi perched himself on the heel of his palm and mouthed, “Fuck you…” Hanji then took out a small memo-book and drew three more tallies next to an already existing twenty. 

“You have said the word ‘fuck’ twenty three times today and it’s only eleven o’ clock.” 

“Just shut up. If you’re trying to teach me a lesson, you’re not going to have the satisfaction of it. I’m already fed up with everyone and everything here.” Levi impatiently picked at the splintered wood of the picnic table. He watched as eager university freshmen consulted their maps, or spoke with staff that patrolled the grounds. He glanced at his phone to see yet another anonymous text and promised himself he’d delete them all later that night. 

“Open house is tonight, right?” Levi asked and Hanji nodded, “You’re going?” 

Levi let out an angered breath, “No, I’m going to track down where you wrote my fricken number and get rid of it. I’m tired of getting all these messages!” As if on cue, another came and Levi now furiously tapped out a reply of “Fuck off.” 

Slamming down his phone again, he looks to Hanji, “When did you write my phone number on the  _ bloody  _ wall?” 

Hanji took another painfully slow sip of tea, “ _ I  _ didn’t do it.”

Levi nodded irritably, “I’ve been getting these messages for a week! You had to have wrote it at orientation!” 

Again, Hanji shrugged and Levi, infuriated as is, pocketed his phone and stood up. “Fuck you.” He said angrily at her and she only recorded another tally.


	2. Chapter 2

Eren trudged through the hall of the Biology-Chemistry wing, silently glancing up at the room numbers as he went. As of tomorrow he would be a student of Shiganshina University of Science and Arts, and his schedule couldn’t be any more confusing. 

His schedule was confusing enough, but his mind was a warbled mess of the events that had preceded today. Having spent his last summer as a means of scraping up money, he had fortunately been able to receive a scholarship for his next step in education, but that did little to aid him in the misfortune that would later come. His sickly mother, as elated as she was to see her son succeed; passed a week before she could see him go. Eren’s father had abandoned his family, the wound of losing his wife still fresh and deep within his heart. Mikasa, who was spending a semester abroad could not afford to fly back for the funeral of her mother and relied on Eren for emotional support. Eren wished he could look to Armin, but he too was suffering the fresh loss of his grandfather, who cared for him up until this point. 

Eren and Armin’s loved one’s had fallen ill to the deadly parasite publicly known as “Titan”, that eats the victims from the inside out. As organs shut down one by one, the chances for survival would decrease. It usually occurred swiftly, and within a month-long period, anyone affected would pass. 

With his heart heavy and emotions beginning to break, Eren quickly locked himself in the nearest bathroom and away from the crowded hall. 

Within the intimate privacy of a locked stall, he sobbed quietly to himself at the hopelessness that had become his life. He could not burden his family and friends, especially with the pettiness of his situation. He could not throw himself into anyone, he could not do anything but sit and cry. Tomorrow would be the start of something so joyously new, but Eren could not hold back what was so regretfully true. 

When he looked up with a tear ridden face, there was a phone number neatly written on the bathroom stall door. It read, “I’m here for you…” and Eren stared at it until a halo of focus surrounded the script. 

Numbly, he pulled out his phone and began to compose a text, his doubts high but his determination never failing. 

 

  * __“Hi… your service advertises some form of counsel… are you legit?”__



 

He sat on the toilet seat, awaiting a response. His phone buzzed and he opened the message. 

 

  * __“You know what? No, I don’t give a shit about you or your shitty problems. Leave me alone!”__



 

Eren looked at the message as a personal offense, not only did the number advertise their service of comfort, but it blatantly and rudely turned him down without as much as an empathetic “sorry, not available”. And even if he were ignored, it would’ve been a better response than a blunt slap to the face.

He took a breath and began to furiously type:

 

  * __“Well fuck you too then! If you weren’t willing to listen to someone’s venting then you shouldn’t have advertised yourself for that! You don’t know what the person texting you is going through and by telling them that you don’t care about them or their problems may just be their problem!”__



 

He let that one send, but his vulnerability drove him to continue. 

 

  * __“I’m in a pretty shitty situation, and because you said you would listen then here… listen. Ever since I graduated in May, i’ve been working my ass off to get into a good school that has somehow blessed me with a scholarship. Tomorrow is my first day and a week ago my mom died, my dad left me and my sister to fend for ourselves and even she isn’t prepared to take on my emotional ass, much less I can hers. My friends are suffering and there is literally no one else I can look to so why don’t you shut the fuck up and if you wanted to help someone then at least act like you do okay?!”__



 

Eren angrily pockets his phone and throws open the stall door. He knew he was alone, no one will help him because no one wants to bother to care. The phone number was a stupid and impulsive mistake, and now he’s made himself into an ass because he tried to reach out to somebody and was rejected. If he was going to survive himself and school, he was going to have to go at it alone. 

Straightening his appearance in the mirror, he sucked in a breath of courage and returned to his map. He shifted his focus to what is needed to be done, and found it better off to forget any of this happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Levi continued to ignore the slew of text messages that came after someone asked if he was legitimately there for counseling. He’d kept himself busy in his cramped dorm, organizing paperwork and doing his summer-break assignment. His roommate, Erwin, was away on campus, guiding all of the freshmen and being of service to them. 

Levi couldn’t be more than less interested in anything having to do with the school, because he only knew that the reason he was there was so that he could complete his degrees and move on with life. He didn’t bother to get involved with anything else unless it interested him, or benefitted him in someway. 

Time had passed quickly, and the evening grew darker. Erwin hadn’t returned yet and Levi still needed to finish an assignment before the first day of class tomorrow. Levi went over his schedule, quietly judging how useless some of the classes he needed to take were. In order to finish one of his studies, he needed to take a prerequisite, freshman level class of Chemistry. He hated the idea of sitting in a sea of people younger than him, but it was unavoidable if he ever wanted to finish his studies and get the degree he had been laboring over for years. The class promised it was only two quarters long, but it would be the longest two quarters Levi would ever take. 

Picking up his assignment from a neglected folder, he was supposed to complete a fifty-question packet, read designated sections from the textbook he’d picked up three months ago and write a report on a scientific book of his choice. He’d managed to suffer through the first two parts, but he was still left with writing a report. 

He loathed going to the campus library, it was always filled with annoying frat boys scouting out the most vulnerable girls or those who took their studying too seriously. But, Levi needed the class to move on with his education, and these non-routine visits will have to be dealt with. 

He slipped on a light sweatshirt, and put on his shoes. With his ID, he locked his dorm before walking down the hall and out the door. 

 

The library was thirty minutes away from closing, and Levi rushed in with the sole intention of finding something, and leaving as soon as possible. He skipped over to the nonfiction section, quickly scoping for anything with a scientific title. He skimmed over a spine with “The Double Helix” written on it, and the author, James Watson, he knew was someone to be a part of genetic sciences. 

Levi took the book to check-out and received a ‘low battery’ notification on his phone. Because of all the unwanted attention he’s been getting, it is draining his battery and he silently cursed at Hanji for being stupid enough to do such a thing. 

On the walk back to his dorm, he skipped around on his phone. He deleted the irrelevant ones as they went, but paused when one of the unanswered ones caught his attention. 

It was from the kid whose mom passed, and his dad was being an ass. At a crosswalk, Levi stopped to read the anger-filled message, no doubt from a frustrated author, and couldn’t help but feel sorry. 

As cold as the young man was, Levi knows what it’s like to go through the loss of his mother, and then having to put up with a cruddy father. He also couldn’t blame the kid for being so frustrated with him in the first place. Levi was a bit harsh in his responses, and even though Hanji had managed to put up his number for too long; the least he could do was be a  little less harsh to all his woeful writers before he can figure out how to get himself out of this. 

As traffic sped by, Levi wrote out a text: 

 

  * __“Hey, sorry man, I know I was a bit harsh and I didn’t hear you out all the way. I’m sorry to hear about your mom, I know what it’s like to lose someone so close. And, I’m sorry about your shitty dad, but you need to know that he’s hurting just the same as you so don’t hate on him too much. Your sister, she’ll be alright, I bet she will. Just try to help her when she needs you, don’t smother her too much or else it’ll make both of you feel worse. And you, just remember that what happened to your mom, millions of other people like you go through the same thing at one point or another, some sooner and some later. I hope you know that your mom still loves you, and she will be proud to find out one way or another what a stellar student you’d become. Give your family some time, and lay back on yourself. Don’t stress out too much, and I hope my apology was taken seriously. Sorry again man, have a good night.”__



 

With that, Levi sent the text and was relieved to know he made someone’s night a little less shitty. As he continued to walk home, he also deleted the messages he’d received earlier and apologized to those he was angry with. He walked into his dorm with a lightened heart and found Erwin brushing his teeth in the sink. 

“I heard what Hanji did, how’d you take it?” He said with a froth-filled mouth. Levi dumped his book on his bed and shrugged, “Like I always take things I don’t like.” 

“I’m guessing she took tallies of it?” Erwin said and Levi nodded, beginning to unwind with his stresses beginning to diminish. 

A few moments later, Levi received another text: 

 

  * __“Hey man, all is forgiven. You make some really good points and I thank you for them. I won’t bother you anymore. Thanks again.”__



 

 

Levi felt almost empty when that response came, like this person he was able to relate to so much is gone and he will never find someone like that. Erwin was somewhat confused to see Levi continuing to text the anonymous number despite his annoyance for them earlier. But Levi only continued: 

 

  * __“I know you’re probably not going to care when I write this but if you are still having trouble with like, anything, just tell me. I can’t promise I have a solution for everything but if you need someone… I am somewhat here.”__



 

 

Almost instantly there was a response: 

 

  * __“I’ll think about it…”__



 

 

That evening, Levi was constantly distracted between his new mystery texting partner and procrastination. He’d managed to read half of the book before coming to the conclusion he will just wing the assignment if he wanted to get it done by one in the morning. Erwin was long gone for some odd errand and Levi had begun to type up his report, eventually scouting for some odd resources and a few lengthy quotes here or there to meet wordcount. 

By then, he hadn’t gotten a single message and he realized he’d finished the last of his assignment. Stuffing his things into his bag, he set an alarm for an early awakening and went to sleep. But, finding he had trouble for the chance that his new mystery texting-friend would respond. 


End file.
